National Audubon Society

National Audubon Society is considered a Big Green environmental group, one of the largest and most prominent in the world. It is a member of Natural Resources Council of America. "One of the oldest and most high-brow of American conservation groups, the Audubon Society has long been a bastion of Rockefeller Republicans. It demonstrates a particular obsession with Third World birth rates, advocating harsh population control measures. In 1991, the group fired Les Line, the award-winning editor of Audubon magazine, and replaced him with Malcolm Abrams, former editor of The Star tabloid. The group takes in hundreds of thousands of dollars from conservative foundations, such as Pew Charitable Trusts (Sun Oil), the J.M. Kaplan Fund (a former pass-through for CIA moneys) and the Ford Foundation. It has also raked in millions from royalties on oil and gas wells in its Rainey Wildlife Reserve in Louisiana. Last year, the group purged staff, including Brock Evans, widely regarded as the best eco-lobbyist on Capitol Hill. Former staffers say the new president, John Flicker, wants to turn the group into a Nature Conservancy for the birdwatching crowd. Local chapters, such as Sassafras Audubon in Bloomington, Ind., and Kalmiopsis Audubon in Port Orford, Ore., often demonstrate a refreshing degree of independence.